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Sequoia Olivia Mercier is a poet, community organizer, mother, and mental health facilitator. She is a Harlem, New York native who has lived in Los Angeles for the majority of her life. She is a member and former Executive Director of The World Stage Performance Gallery in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. Author, Midnite Rainbow, 2005. Her work appears in several other publications some of which include: Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady (Excelsior Editions) 2009; Voices from Leimert Park 2006; Voices from Leimert Park: Redux 2017; and Angels in the Village 2000. In 2021 her Story Portrait was on display in Leimert Park and the California African American Museum as part of a collaborative art project titled, Creating Our Next L.A., organized by LA Commons / We Rise. She was chosen by the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN) in September 2021 to receive an award for her poetry which appears in The Right to Heal Zine.
Summary of Midnite Rainbow:
A sensuous, vulnerable, montage, a mid-life precursor to a memoir, offered in the spirit of celebration as I move forward on the road of wellness/Oneness, a caring reach to light the path for others, my family, my friends, my community, my ancestors, and the world beyond.
MAGNOLIA
In the arms of two magnolia trees
Rest unashamed
Kneel at the altar of breasts adorning
the neck of the sky
Green and white
Obatala promises bloom here
naked pussy bark drinks the sun
cradles the moon
brown lips witness passing of time
once there were fingers and hands here
children’s feet climbing
now purple women
line the gaping darkness
with prayer
and breath of orchids
seduce the wind
a siren song bleeds thru the stealth
of silence
rescues healing
from the wailing wall
claims the phoenix fire
the right to re-invent ourselves
and the strength to do it